There is a lot of well tried advise on composition in art and photography available on the web and good ol’ printed material too. There is much to be learned from the classical artists regarding fundamentals such as: positioning and balancing elements in the frame; the use of scale and leading the eye in, around — and even out of — a picture. As I alluded to in the piece on location, it and composition are inextricably linked. To get the elements (actors, props, bits of set) arranged in the frame where I want them, I have to be prepared to move around a lot and change location frequently. Meanwhile the actors are moving around a lot too (unless it’s Endgame of course). It’s a bit of a dance.

So what am I looking for? Below are a few suggestions with example pix. It’s neither a definitive nor extensive list, and I may well revise it and add to it, as other items come to mind, but it’s a start.

Put actors on (roughly) the intersection of the  thirds.

Put actors’ eyes  (roughly) on the intersection of the thirds.

Putting the subject off-centre often works better than in the middle.

But not always …

Putting the actors out at the edge of the frame can have a powerful effect.

Seemingly in contradiction to that… Avoid big gaps between actors (unless you want a specific effect)

Vary size of actors (i.e. their distance from camera) in the frame, be prepared for limited DoF issues.


Avoid lines of actors across the stage, it’s usually boring, unless the moment is just right.

Also by not shooting square on you effectively move the line towards a diagonal.

Diagonals can be strong and dynamic.

Look for natural tight cropping of 2+ heads.

Capture/use the effect of the stage lighting.

Align actor with lighting for effect.

Capture a tableau.

Frame actor in set or through part of another actor, or themselves.

And this one also fits in the category below, for postural echo shots.

Arrange actors (or directors!) to show them working in unison or displaying postural echo if you like.

Consider the actor’s gaze (sometimes direct engagement with the camera works)…

…Or leave the actor gazing space.

Location (where I and the camera are positioned) is generally driven by the need for good composition but may be restrained by other factors. I shall consider composition itself elsewhere.

Limiting factors might be dictated by the environment or the requests of the company (“stand there and don’t move.”)

Often the main influence on where I am is the nature of the event. If it is a workshop or early run-through in a rehearsal room, then usually I rove freely around the space, with the potential to shoot in any direction. This luxury is also sometimes available during the dress rehearsal of a promenade production. Unless required to stay in one spot, then constant movement to change view is essential for the best shots. Once in a spot, composition again dictates vertical position — standing, kneeling, sitting or laying. It pays not to dress up for a shoot, as more often than not you end up doing a bit of impromptu floor polishing.

With a more traditional theatre layout, on a proscenium stage for example, I’m generally constrained to locations within the auditorium. Factors to consider here include ease of initial access and speed to move around, field of view, width of aisles and steepness of rake. Sometimes shots from the wings or even from upstage can work, although these are more atmospheric shots, and aren’t recommended during a dress rehearsal…

Always, always check with the actors and director or SM about where they’re happy for you to be or not to be. I tend towards a chameleon approach, blending into the background to observe quietly. As the actors become engrossed in their action, I am very quickly forgotten and can shoot freely.

You can, of course, use just about any camera to shoot theatre photography. What’s the point of forking out extra pounds for ‘better’ kit? I’d argue that there are several compelling reasons – quality, versatility, extensibility.

I use a Nikon D700 – a DSLR with an FX or full frame sensor. So what? Simple: it delivers superb quality in low light, with very little noise at very high (6400+) ISO values. As you move down the scale of sensor size, then typically noise increases with pixel density and maximum useable ISO is lower. Your options for low light photography reduce proportionately and the result is a lower quality image captured at the sensor. (If you’re not too sure about any of these terms then pop them into your favourite search engine.)

For me the piece of glass on the front of the camera is easily as important as the body. Probably more so. A high quality professional lens will last a very long time and will most likely remain compatible as you progress through the manufacturer’s range of bodies. I still use Nikkor lenses that I bought in the 1980s. They may be manual focus but they deliver full open aperture-priority metering on the D700. Professional lenses are more robust and usually faster, i.e. have a wider maximum aperture. This means capturing more light, which is important not only for exposure but also for focusing on a darkling stage. So you will infer that slower lenses will be slightly more restrictive in scope and ease of use in the gloom. Succinctly put then, fast glass is good for theatre work.

If you’d considered getting a flash then you can save money. You don’t need one and shouldn’t use one for stage work. Respect for the subtleties of the lighting director’s art go straight down the toilet if you’re splatting white light from a tiny reflector all over the scene. Flash, on the other hand, is a sure way to earn the undying affection of the actors…

Sometimes even with fast glass, an FX sensor and high ISO you still can’t achieve an adequately quick shutter speed. In these cases I use a monopod – a reasonably portable, unobtrusive support that allows you to get away with slower shutter speeds than those achievable hand-held. Remember, though, that while things aren’t moving around at your end, actors on stage will be, and will require a minimum shutter speed to be captured sharply.

 

I have started taking photos within seconds of arriving at a rehearsal. I have also read the play in advance and gone on to discuss scenes with the director. Every production is different.

Typically what I like to do is arrive several minutes before the start and check out the venue. I’m looking to identify the orientation of the stage — or maybe it’s to be a promenade performance. What will make a good background, what will be distracting, what will be well lit, where will be in shadow? Where can I walk, where’s off limits? Are there low beams, cables, scaffolding, bits of set or actors to be avoided? What’s on the floor? That’s an important one, especially as I tend to work in bare feet. I recently shot a dress rehearsal with a set made up of over two tonnes of soil. Footprints, bare or otherwise, weren’t welcome.

Moving around an auditorium with only stage lighting is vastly different to traversing it with the workers on. I check and plan the routes beforehand and make sure there are no bits and pieces of set, actors’ gear or resting actors in my way. If they are then I’ll move them.

What light levels can I expect (dim ones, usually)? How bright will it get? How dark? Any sudden lighting effects to anticipate, explosions, pyrotechnics, glowing braziers? A chat with the lighting director can be useful, especially if she can run through the board to demonstrate some of the more extreme lighting set-ups.

What of the action itself? This is where a chat with the director, AD or SM can be useful. Or, even better, observing an earlier rehearsal. Knowing in advance where a key sequence will unfold increases the chance of being in the optimal location for the best shot.

In order to focus on aspects of capturing live performance  I am going to assume of the reader a reasonable grasp of the fundamentals of photography. Especially the interaction of shutter speed, aperture and ISO. An excellent means of exploring this without having to raise as much as an eyebrow let alone a bulky DSLR may be found here. For good measure it also includes the effect of varying the focal length of lens and the camera to subject distance. You will need Adobe flash installed, which means that you can’t play with it on your iPad.

Last week I photographed a late rehearsal of The Magic Flute. We were in the auditorium where the final performance was to be, on the same stage, and we had most of the cast mostly in costumes. We didn’t have the set nor the stage lighting, just banks of workers.

The undressed stage did boast a few distractions, a grand piano for example and some bright, shinny things at the back. I still don’ t know what they were but I asked for them to be cleared away. Don’t be afraid to ask for distractions like that to be minimised or removed. Examine the stage area closely in advance, if you get the chance. If items cannot be removed or covered then work out angles to shoot from that minimise their inclusion. Long lens and tight cropping can also be useful.

Sometimes the stage will be littered with odds and ends and fragments of paper, if they’re not intrinsic to the plot then get them shifted. However, trying to rip up the tape used for blocking and set positioning is generally a good way to ensure you’re not invited back for future productions.

Often for rehearsals like this where the lighting designer’s handy work is yet to be captured I will reproduce the images in Black and White or play around with the palette. This can give pleasing results in it’s own right but can also eliminate irrelevant and incongruous backgrounds, see for example the early rehearsal pix for Tis Pity She’s a Whore, conducted in a laboratory …

A number of people have asked if I can make available the content of the workshops that I ran a while back, on line. As their emphasis was very much on practical sessions the best that I can do is distill some of the recommendations and advice.

I shall post the hints and tips over the next few weeks whenever I have a spare moment.

Of course, all the normal rules and recommendations of photography in general apply here too, regarding composition, framing etc. The hints and tips may broadly be categorized into one of three areas: technical, aesthetic and social. I shall try and provide a mix of all as we progress.

For me the theatre has been a great passion since the 1970s. I believe that my photography is attempting to extend that enthusiasm and engagement to a wider audience. So, the first tip is to embrace the challenge and enjoy the experience, every production will be different.

It’s not that often that I cover two rehearsals in one day, but I did just that earlier this week for Brokenville and The Nose Logistics apart, fully charged batteries, plenty of memory cards, time to travel between venues, etc the main thing for me is the naming of the image files. As you’ll soon observe from looking through and of the galleries I use a very simple naming convention for all my pix, facilitated by the LightRoom import process. It’s simply date-sequence number, e.g. 20110616-101. By this means I can immediately pinpoint when any old photo was taken, which can help with retrieval, possibly years & thousands of pix, later.

Each new job gets its own directory in the current month directory, in the current year directory, e.g. 2011->june->brokenville. I usually tell LR to start the sequence number at 100 for each job, so to avoid duplicate numbers by having two jobs on the same day I’ve started the second job at 1000. This of course is for human consumption, LR doesn’t care about identical file names as long as the images are in different directories.

When the final set of images are exported from LR ready for display I will sometimes use the LR facility to re-sequence them to give a new contiguous range of numbers, starting well above the initial set.

The challenges faced in covering this production, in The Finborough Theatre in London, were mainly of limited time and slightly restricted viewing angles. The photo opportunity was between the cast’s arrival and the matinee run, with the delaying vagaries of the Central Line thrown in for good measure. So there was no time for a full run through, which would also have been hugely unfair to ask of the brilliant cast. Yet I did not want to treat this like a photo-call with possible repeated sequences until ‘the ‘shot’ was in the can. Instead I wanted the scenes to flow freely with no interruption. The responsibility is then mine to find the shots and angles as they unfold, which is much more natural, and closer in feel to a regular dress rehearsal. It lead to much bending, stretching, stooping, sitting and laying down on the job.

With the front row of seats so close to the performers, any slightly wider shot could easily include them. I tried to minimise their ingress into the frame and where they did sneak in I cropped them back out in post production. I did take some liberties with angles, shooting through the set on a few occasions from the wings for better alignment of the actors. This gives an impossible audience perspective of course, but if it works, it’s in. I also tended to shoot slightly wider than normal, electing to do some recomposing and tighter cropping in post.

Many thanks to Caitlin, Ben, Hannah and the cast.

The challenge was a common one. How to diminish the unsightly, uneven, everyday elements of the rehearsal room & focus on the drama. Here the action was for How to Disappear Completely & Never Be Found. The technique was to use Sigma’s 85mm f1.4 only just stopped down, and get as close to the actors as possible. Given the theatre in the round (ok, pentagon) layout, that was relatively easy. But, as the action happened in 360 degrees the backgrounds varied from shot to shot. Plain wall one moment, followed by piled up furniture and rounded off by nice reflecting windows. Get in close & crop tightly was the mantra for the evening.

Things were easier for the dress rehearsal in the darkness of the Studio space. I could also move further back and use the 70-200 which for reasons as yet unexplained kept failing to find the focus point. This was so annoying that by the second half I switched to the wider zoom as you’ll probably infer from the more inclusive nature of the later pix. For once I don’t think the focus issue was down to low light. The production was relatively bright, but I don’t think I’ll rename the website just yet.